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And sigh.  Now we must add an update to this post.  

Regarding my recent artwork submission "Too many entries.  Not enough room for yours"

I will find the right people at the right place at the right time.  This one wasn't it, but it's out there :)

I'll let you know the details when I get them!  Thanks for staying tuned in.

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, location:   Bryansk.  

Oh.  Right.  When I am just drooling over paintings, not painting them, I don't suppose it's fair to call it studio action!

May I say, it has been a busy week of travel amidst our ongoing Russian adventure? 

мой муж (yup, that's 'the husband') needed to travel to Bryansk, Russia this week.  The company is opening a newly constructed feed mill in a village nearby Bryansk, called Pochup.  When overnight travel is required (in this case ALL week) I can normally wrangle a tag-a-long invitation.  And because I'd earlier gotten acquainted with two outstanding Bryansk art museums, I was definitely a determined wrangler :) for this road trip.  

So.  The museum du jour is this one:  http://www.russianmuseums.info/M1461

I found no английский speakers at this museum.  BUT!  Guess what?  Dare I say it out loud???  The Russian language lessons might be starting to take hold.  I was able to have a semblance of conversation with a couple of the docents.  Sort of.  

Said museum has the habit of hanging paintings tandem, one over the top of the other.  This means that sometimes the top painting of the pair is hung so high on the wall, as to make good study of it nearly impossible.  

So I got brave and suggested потом потом (later, or afterward) that it would be great if they would rotate that painting down to the lower level...  I must have gotten it sort of close, because they (by then a committee had assembled :) ) all smiled at me, shook their heads in the affirmative, and agreed потом потом.  Now see, these are GOOD international negotiations!

I would be ever so happy to show you some of the paintings I enjoyed at the museum, but the camera battery had to go to the charger.  Yeah, I took a lot of pictures :)  I promise to show you a few as soon as power is restored!

In the meantime, I'm sure I've shared how this Russian adventure has sort of stymied exhibiting my paintings at art fairs.  And I've been looking at various alternative exhibits, specifically, at juried gallery exhibits.  

So.  There's a gallery in northern Illinois that put out an art call for their juried exhibit.  And I entered a few paintings......

I have no clue what the jury will select.  Will they like my work?  Will they like the paintings I chose to enter?  Do they even LIKE figurative paintings?  It appears I am to find out answers to those questions by mid February.  In the meantime, here are the three, I picked.  Update at eleven....

  Oh.  You Noticed.

  Seriously.  You Should Get One Just Like Mine.

 One Hot Day On Sovetskaya.  

Thanks for stopping by!

Later, Karen

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Lipetsk.

Today I opened a new portfolio page on my website.  Yup, it was spur of the moment thinking.  And sometimes we just find it necessary to follow through.  We'll see where it leads.  

I've mentioned my drawing group, that meets on Thursday nights in Lipetsk.  It's a bunch of classically trained (really WELL classically trained) Russian artists.  I could spend the whole night just watching them work - but I settle for a few minutes and then try to progress my own.  

Results???  But of course:

Next week we go to the Pork Expo in Moscow (ha, can't get too far from Iowa!) but the following week will be another drawing session.

Later, Karen